Te Akau Winners Impress

The Waikato Times' Tim Ryan reported:

The good looking son of Ethereal got the ball rolling for Te Akau Racing at Te Rapa on Wednesday.

Imperium lived up to his looks with a gallant fresh-up win in the 1600 metre Clubhouse Sports Bar & Cafe 1600 ridden strongly by Matthew Cameron. The first three home were the tailend trio with 600 metres of the race to go. When Cameron pushed the button Imperium zoomed into contention and was forced to fight off Foxton visitor O'Ceirins Whisper.

They had a good fight with the visitor wilting slightly while Imperium fought hard. Dontbreakmyheart completed the trifecta and his connections lodged a protest which was dismissed, after the horse was shut out of tight gap at the 200 metre mark.

By leading stallion Encosta De Lago, four-year-old gelding Imperium was a $425,000 yearling purchase and was winning his second race from six starts for the Te Akau 2013 Breeding Syndicate.

There should be more in store as he appears stronger than in earlier campaigns as would be expected of a son of a Caulfield-Melbourne Cup winning dam.

"That was really good from a horse first up in nine weeks," syndicate manager, David Ellis said. "I would like to think he will be winning a really nice race by Christmas."

Te Akau trainers Stephen Autridge (main picture) and Jamie Richards made it two for the day when Tavistock filly Tatters, purchased by Autridge, prevailed in the maiden fillies and mares 1200.

"I'm very happy with that," Autridge said. "She's a progressive type of filly and ran some good races last campaign and deserved her win. She'll get tracks to suit over the next few months and won't be hard to place."

A large syndicate of owners were ready to celebrate after the win including Peter and Pauline Coleman, parents of winning jockey Michael Coleman.

"It's nice to win one for mum and dad," Coleman said. "She always travelled nicely and when the challenges came she found more."